Grace Community Church
Developing Bibically Grounded Followers of Christ
Touch of Grace
Finance$
My focus in this month’s “Office Corner” is something near and dear to everyone's heart - Finance$! What happens to the check you write and drop in the basket on Sunday morning? Let me introduce you to the team of people that is committed to handling GCC finances with integrity and skill. It all begins with our Stewardship Council.
Our By-laws state that “the Stewardship Council shall be responsible for...the handling of church money.” Every Sunday, a designated team from Stewardship counts the morning offering and records and deposits it in the bank before the day is over. To preserve the integrity of the process and to protect those involved, there is a weekly rotation of different people who handle separate steps of that process.
Others on the financial team include our church treasurer, Gene Pankratz, who is appointed by the Council. Carla Rowse helps with bookkeeping responsibilities and Veda Hamill does payroll and tax documents. I am the primary bookkeeper for GCC.
In addition to handling responsibilities for the buildings and finances on a weekly basis, the Stewardship Council’s other major area of responsibility is preparation of the annual budget for GCC. Because July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, is coming up quickly, they are currently in the middle of the huge and complex process of discerning current needs and anticipating what GCC will look like in the next year.
Here is an overview of the budget process. In February, our Treasurer gives each Council chair a copy of the current budget so they can review their Council’s expenditures. In March, each Council is asked to send a representative to meet individually with the Stewardship Council to present their proposal for the following fiscal year’s expenditures.
All these requests are processed into a first-draft budget recommendations and given to the Elders. After passing it back and forth a couple of times for review and recommendations, the Elders make the final decision to adopt the new budget. Copies are made available to the church body when it is completed. The entire process ends by June 15, so that the new budget can be entered into the computers in time for the new fiscal year.
Is your head spinning yet? It probably should be. This is a lengthy and time consuming process that is not taken lightly by the Stewardship Council, the Elders, or anyone else involved. It is a huge challenge to accurately anticipate church income and ministry needs.
There is a constant tug-of-war between the need to establish an objective budget and the need to trust God to grow ministry—between ‘realism’ and faith.
Please pray for both the Stewardship Council and the Elders to have grace and wisdom as they make these strategic decisions.
By Janelle Paden